02:33 - VIGJust sayin' I remember nikarg's Sodom review on the front page, that album was like 30 years old

02:27 - ScreamingSteelUSTechnically, Che's Manunkind review was too old to be featured on the front page. That was a special exception; usually, we prefer to keep our reviews within three-to-four months, with six months as an absolute cutoff.

02:14 - VIG@Radu Of course! I don't think it's too old to be featured on the front page. Look at Che's Manunkind review

00:09 - RaduPPublished a review for an album that's a bit too old to be featured on the front page, but you guys will read it, right? [link]

01. A Quiet Place02. Barkhan Charge03. With Grace04. Forgotten People05. Nuclear City06. A Day And Night Of Misfortune I - Day07. A Day And Night Of Misfortune I - Night

Music is an art form. Like drawing or painting, it requires passion and years of practice to perfect. Within painting, there are thousands of fantastic artists, all with a unique creativeness and mindset. However, only a select few gain the respect of the average folk. Only a few people's work will ever turn into a masterpiece, (Picasso or Van Gogh for example) leaving hundreds of artists in the dust. I suppose what I'm getting at is that We Lost The Sea are the musical form of those artists; something that will fly under the radar, unnoticed by most.

We should change that.

We Lost The Sea is a seven piece post-metal band from all the way down under. To be short and sweet, they simply blew me away at first listen. From the first 30 seconds of melancholic atmosphere I knew this was going to be good: the piano intro, the mellow and soothing guitars, the eruption of screams and crashing cymbals, everything… everything was perfect.

The music is that of a fickle kind, long tracks, a lot of ambience; most would find a release such as this boring and almost annoying. However, these tracks are filled with bustling riffs, slow, heart-moving bass lines, and my personal favourite, piano pieces that add a little extra to an already solid formula. After a buildup of energy, the music is released in a fury of screams and powerful drum blasts. The heaviness rains down upon the listener, trapping them in the void that is The Quietest Place On Earth.

I suppose you could say that the cover is a fairly good image to describe the music: floating through space on a cloud of ambience, viewing the world far below. The feeling of being worry free, and just… being, it all comes together here.

But wait,

Something is wrong.

While floating lifelessly overtop of the world, something begins to happen. Your gentle movement increases its speed; its movements become less fluid, and then, all of a sudden the once invincible mass of cloud dissipates from beneath you.

You begin to fall and fall, spinning out of control back into our atmosphere. Plummeting towards the ground, you realise all of the mistakes and regrets you have in life. All of the little things you wish you could change, it all rushes to your head. You come to terms with your fate; you understand that your time has come. You shed a few tears as your body nears closer to the ground.

Great job on the review , a little cliche but really interesting . the simplicity of the cover reminds me of Todtgelichter's Angst . I wonder if the music makes me feel the same way ... gonna check this out , that's for sure .

Well,well, you're turning out to be quite the writer Box, I like. And I might add that the review may sound over praising, but these guys deserves every inch of the love. Thanks for shining a light on them.

----
You cannot sedate all the things you hate - MM
The Observer is the source of reality - Bloom
God damn it!! What did Diddy didn't do? - Satan

@Box if you like this band make sure (if you haven't already) to check out bands like Arktika (Germany) and Envy (Japan), they are quite in the same vein methinks

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CrucifuxAccount deleted

23.12.2012 - 04:54

CrucifuxAccount deleted

I feel like I'm the only one that doesn't care much for the dramatic imagery. Not that it wasn't good, I just prefer reviews to be more analytical.
Nevertheless, you've convinced me to give it another go. You should try your hand at prose sometime.

I feel like I'm the only one that doesn't care much for the dramatic imagery. Not that it wasn't good, I just prefer reviews to be more analytical.
Nevertheless, you've convinced me to give it another go. You should try your hand at prose sometime.

I agree

I tend to dislike this kind of review. I feel it is too subjective to the reviewer (subjectivity is essential and not a bad thing, but should not overpower), and too much like a creative writing essay. I'd just like more specific and and creative ways of interpreting the music. At the end of this review, I'm left with:
- ambient post metal
- acoustic piano
- blast beats
- reviewer seems to think its ethereal sounding

Not THAT uninformative actually, but what about:
- tempo
- songwriting approach
- similar bands
- did you like it? Why or why not?
- who do you think would like it?
- if you know anything about music theory, what kind of harmonic and rhythmic approach do they tend to use. i.e.

- Death Metal with your typical diminished approach
- Basically Iron Maiden-esque diatonic riffs, but with a more death/thrash metal approach to rhythm, guitar tone, and vocal delivery (right there I'd know I wouldn't like this example much)
- This has very interesting harmony, I have never heard anything quite like it (I would check this example out immediately)
- counterpoint?

- tone of instruments
- impressive aspects of their music?
- other things that define their music and give it charachter if there is any. (I find that many good bands have this aspect)

I've never written a review, but theres a perspective to take a look at from someone who doesn't feel warm inside when reading creative writing. It was good, but perhaps a bit impractical?

I should write a review now, see if I can put my opinions into practice. It would probably suck lol.

And to be fair, just seeing the words ambient post metal with blastbeats admitedlly does make me want to check this out. I have no idea if I'm gonna think its some pretentious hipster metal though. I could like it a lot.

I feel like I'm the only one that doesn't care much for the dramatic imagery. Not that it wasn't good, I just prefer reviews to be more analytical.
Nevertheless, you've convinced me to give it another go. You should try your hand at prose sometime.

I agree

I tend to dislike this kind of review. I feel it is too subjective to the reviewer (subjectivity is essential and not a bad thing, but should not overpower), and too much like a creative writing essay. I'd just like more specific and and creative ways of interpreting the music. At the end of this review, I'm left with:
- ambient post metal
- acoustic piano
- blast beats
- reviewer seems to think its ethereal sounding

Not THAT uninformative actually, but what about:
- tempo
- songwriting approach
- similar bands
- did you like it? Why or why not?
- who do you think would like it?
- if you know anything about music theory, what kind of harmonic and rhythmic approach do they tend to use. i.e.

- Death Metal with your typical diminished approach
- Basically Iron Maiden-esque diatonic riffs, but with a more death/thrash metal approach to rhythm, guitar tone, and vocal delivery (right there I'd know I wouldn't like this example much)
- This has very interesting harmony, I have never heard anything quite like it (I would check this example out immediately)
- counterpoint?

- tone of instruments
- impressive aspects of their music?
- other things that define their music and give it charachter if there is any. (I find that many good bands have this aspect)

I've never written a review, but theres a perspective to take a look at from someone who doesn't feel warm inside when reading creative writing. It was good, but perhaps a bit impractical?

I should write a review now, see if I can put my opinions into practice. It would probably suck lol.

And to be fair, just seeing the words ambient post metal with blastbeats admitedlly does make me want to check this out. I have no idea if I'm gonna think its some pretentious hipster metal though. I could like it a lot.

Wow, was not expecting this... uh...
It seems you answer a few of your own questions, tempo - ambient post-metal. I'd bet my lifes savings that this isn't going to be 280bpm.

Songwriting approach, again ambient post-metal. I also said that songs build up energy and release it.

"did you like it? Why or why not?" DId you read the review? I called it "perfect" in some spots. This is my album of the as I've stated. If you can't get that I like it from the review, then I highly doubt you should be giving me advice on how to write one.

Tone, I find stating this is unnecessary, unless it's truly awful, people will figure out what it's like in 10 seconds of the music.

"impressive aspects of their music?" again, the review...

The point of a review in my mind is to inform the reader if this is something they should check out, not if it's good or bad or to totally analyze the bands sound. I also don't like to label things to deeply. Sometimes you have to take a second and read inbetween the lines.

"Basically Iron Maiden-esque diatonic riffs, but with a more death/thrash metal approach to rhythm, guitar tone, and vocal delivery (right there I'd know I wouldn't like this example much)"

This right here is the opposite of what I want to achieve. What if this is actually a very good thrash band? and just because of the genereal dislike of the genre or style a lot of people would have looked away from it. Hopefully this makes sense.

It's a generic postmetal album which is above-average at best. To call this exquisite and ethereal in any way means that you just don't listen to even a moderate amount of similar music. Pretentious band name, cool artsy cover, a little bit of heavy sludge, a little bit of mellow clean guitar work, and you got yourself a "The Quietest Place On Earth". In the end everything sound like you heard it before.

Probably a 6-7/10 for me just because I love listening to postmetal/sludge.

I think it's a really strong release. Good as Isis at its best. Period.

I don't see it. I am THE authority when it comes to post metal on this website (well, I'd like to think if yall had questions about post metal yall would ask me!) and I've tried this album 5 times at least. It's not bad, but I can name 20 other "post" releases this year that I like better. The review is well written and I can tell Boxcar has strong feelings for the album but I just don't like it as much as him and you. I don't think the albums flows well from beginning to end and I think the band tried too hard not to sound like other "post" bands: The piano and female voice feel like they were a bit "forced".

Quote:I don't see it. I am THE authority when it comes to post metal on this website (well, I'd like to think if yall had questions about post metal yall would ask me!) and I've tried this album 5 times at least. It's not bad, but I can name 20 other "post" releases this year that I like better. The review is well written and I can tell Boxcar has strong feelings for the album but I just don't like it as much as him and you. I don't think the albums flows well from beginning to end and I think the band tried too hard not to sound like other "post" bands: The piano and female voice feel like they were a bit "forced".

I guess I need to listen to this one more time...

Yeah, you're kinda right. I was a bit hyped when I wrote this. I'm lately really getting into post-metal. Could you reccommend me a few good albums that don't include Isis, Cult of Luna, Neurosis, Rosetta and Dirge?

Could you reccommend me a few good albums that don't include Isis, Cult of Luna, Neurosis, Rosetta and Dirge?

Glad to help. You pretty much listed the "leaders" of the genre today. So I guess your looking for some stuff not as popular. I hate to do this to you but just go my profile page and click my 3 lists that I have posted, there are a lot of post metal recs! Also, go to my "this is where to find post/sludge/atmo suggestions" thread in the forums, a ton of stuff in there. Here are a few favs of mine, check em out!

Okay, this popped up through facebook. I did check it out couple of songs before and weren't appealing to be really honest. I'd like to quote Ag Fox "what's the fuss"? about this record released last December. Just an average sounding post-metal album dropping and making WLTS fans happy. As Craig said, SSDD record to stop by. Nothing interesting.

I'm agreeing with you on this one, Cynic. This was an incredibly tedious listen, it actually took me three attempts just to finish (in between making food and taking a shower).

Power to those who like it, but I'd rather spend an hour doing... almost anything else. It's far from bad, it just comes across as extremely average, which I tend to think is worse at times than something horrendous. At least that has shock value.